I walked away from TED this year with one clear conviction and a new urgency. The future of work, learning, and human flourishing sits at the intersection of three forces most people are still thinking about separately. Each one is massive on its own. Together, they're the story of our next decade.

AI agents: exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure

The power of AI agents is unprecedented, and it's both exhilarating and terrifying.

AI is genuinely replacing human intelligence at tasks that defined knowledge work for a generation. That is real. The scale of it should make all of us pause. With poor leadership, this power can do civilizational damage.

With great leadership, this same power can do unprecedented good. Agents now execute multi-step, System 2 reasoning. They personalize curriculum in real time. They deliver what Bloom's 2-sigma problem has promised for decades: a tutor for every person. Every program adapts. Every piece of feedback arrives in the moment it's needed.

The promise is that we can unlock human potential in kids, in adults, and in entire workforces at a scale no prior generation has ever had access to.

The Opportunity and the risk are the same size. Both are generational. The leaders who show up matter.

Human connection: the more it's threatened, the more sacred it becomes

Here's the paradox that kept coming up in conversations at TED. We're witnessing the birth of a new intelligence. As AI absorbs more and more of what used to be human cognitive work, people are hungering for what AI can't replicate: presence, belonging, trust, and real relationships.

I felt this viscerally at TED. When something is threatened, it becomes sacred. Human connection used to be a given. It's becoming the thing we're most at risk of losing, which is exactly why it's now the most valuable and essential thing in our lives.

My conviction is sharper than ever: the most valuable, defensible products of the next decade will be the ones built around human connection and community. AI capabilities can be copied. Community cannot.

Efficiency gains without connection gains will produce a generation of faster, lonelier, less-developed humans. That's a failure mode we cannot afford.

Upskilling: the only way through is to accelerate human potential

The pace of change is the real story. Models being released daily that literally replace work as we know it in every function and take out all of the existing work flows and job descriptions as we know them to be today. 

Here's the conviction I came back with. The only way we survive this as a society is by accelerating the velocity of human potential at the same pace technology is accelerating. Slowing the technology is a losing strategy. Scaling humans fast enough to meet the moment is the winning one.

That means millions of people require upskilling. Not next decade. Now. Every person in every role has to keep learning, and keep learning faster.

An explosion of new training organizations, new training programs, and new models for workforce development is coming. Companies and governments are about to confront the reality that their people need to change faster than any generation before them.

The intersection is where the future gets built

Look at the middle of the diagram. That's the real prize.

The organizations that thrive in this next era are the ones fusing all three forces together: AI that personalizes and scales, human connection that drives real transformation, and a learning engine that keeps their people ahead of the curve.

Each force on its own is necessary. None of them alone is enough.

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An AI-only strategy produces isolated, disengaged workers. Self-paced courses already average just 15% completion rates, and more AI layered on top of that pattern won't fix it. A pure human-connection play can't keep up with the velocity of change. Upskilling programs that don't use AI to personalize at scale end up costing too much to matter.

The future belongs to organizations that build where the three circles meet.

Why this moment matters to me

We’re building Disco because learning is where this intersection matters most to me. AI amplifies human potential when it's wrapped in social experiences, real connection, and continuous feedback. That's the bet I've committed my life's work to.

This moment is bigger than any one company. What we need is an explosion of new training organizations, new academies, new programs, and new thinking from educators, employers, and governments. The people doing this work are the ones who'll shape what the next generation inherits.

The question I'm sitting with, and that I think every leader should sit with, is simple. How do we make sure the velocity of human potential keeps pace with the velocity of the technology?

TED was a reminder that this conversation is finally going mainstream. It's time to build.

Candice Faktor is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Disco, the human first, ai native learning platform built for human transformation. 

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